It’s been almost 20 years since Jon Stewart’s Famous Appearance on Crossfire. What does it tell us about the upcoming Election? 

October 15th, 2004, 4:40 pm EST. Host of the popular Daily Show Jon Stewart takes the stage on a CNN theater in Washington to make an appearance on Crossfire, at that time one of the most popular debate shows in America. A short 14 minutes later, and the role of the media in politics is changed forever. 

Crossfire was first aired in 1982 on CNN. Its primary function was to be a debate show–two people with different political opinions would battle to defend their beliefs, favorite candidates, and parties. The show quickly became popular with Americans from coast to coast, although it never really seemed to affect the outcome of any given election. Fast forward to 2004, and election season is in full swing. This, in addition to the guest being Jon Stewart, has given Crossfire and its hosts, Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson extra incentive to put on a good show. But their guest has no intention to go along with the performance. 

Jon Stewart is arguably the most influential comedian/political satirist in television history. Taking the role of host of The Daily Show in 1999, Stewart would mentor future popular satirists and late night show hosts like Stephen Colbert and John Oliver. Stewart is also known for being an acclaimed debater, and he has gone toe to toe with many right wing journalists. But what he did in 2004 on Crossfire was not only going against a right wing host in Tucker Carlson, but going against the mainstream media itself. 

In those 14 minutes Jon Stewart made an argument against the media covering politics, especially interviews with politicians and debates, that can be summed up with one line: “You’re doing theater, when you should be doing debate.” Instead of getting an authentic, informative discourse between two people, the viewers have been getting entertainment instead, according to Stewart’s argument, and it has resulted in the media hurting the American public, not helping them, as all of what goes on during the debate is part of the strategy of the politicians a few miles away from where Crossfire was filmed. 

To truly grasp how potent this argument was let us look no further than the fate of Crossfire: not even a year after this episode aired was the show canceled, paradoxically being destroyed by its most popular segment ever. 

Today in the year 2024 we can see the effects of this episode ring across the political realm of the United States.

The presidential debates have given plenty of information on policy ideas and the platforms of the two major parties sparring on the debate stage. However all that anyone on twitter can seem to focus on is the personal attacks, the outrageous statements, and the charisma of the debaters. The main reason why Biden dropped out after his debate didn’t have much to do with policy or platform, it had to do with age; more specifically, Biden showing his age. Kamala got the win in her debate by having a strong attack against Trump and his policies. Trump maintains popularity with his supporters via outlandish statements that invigorate the audience. 

20 years later, and the media and politicians still have not seemed to completely move away from the entertainment aspect of debates. It is tough to shift away from it with the prevalence of social media, especially Twitter for political battles, that always seem to spark a thousand arguments with the typing of a message or the uploading of a video. 

But on November 5th, the people who vote are almost certainly going to decide their vote based on the policy of the candidate, much to the chagrin of countless twitter arguments. It's for this reason why Jon Stewart, right after the Kamala-Trump debate said this: “I don’t know if this debate’s going to change anything.”